ronlaughlin

Knowing what we know now, it is quite obvious Ron was wrong. But then he is always ron. Just now he mumbled, "just once i would like to be right, but i am always ron"













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hunters_life

I am by far no expert when it comes to in line rifles but from the pictures you posted I do think Mr. Bronkoski has a very valid point. From the condition you stated everything was in as well as the pristine condition of the rest of the bore I would have to question that area of pitting. Again, I'm no expert with in lines but I have been into black powder sidelocks and their like for most of my life. The only time I have seen pitting of that nature was from rifles that had been left loaded after season for a long period of time down in the chamber area. That high up in the barrel and that concentrated is telling me you have a defective barrel. More than likely a tempering issue and one that I would have to be concerned about. I'm sure you know more about these rifles than I but metallurgy is a bit of a hobby of mine that the old man got me into many years ago. That type of flaking and pitting doesn't appear to be from a corrosive but the pictures aren't as clear as I would like to be sure. My advise would be to send that barrel to Thompson Center and have it looked over.

bronko22000

My true concern, because I too have had many years of performing visual inspection on metals, is that from the pictures on hand, it looks as though the area actually got worse after the JB scrub! That is what triggered the alarm in my old noggin that the metal could be flawed and that there may be others lying under the surface.

lemoyne

It is possible that what we are looking at is laminations, but I would be inclined to believe tooling marks would be more likely.

bronko22000

No Lee...the areas in question is far too rough and too localized to be tool marks. Those areas are either caused by corrosion or by foreign material caught up in the material or improper cooling of the forging.
If Ron's pic are in sequence areas in the second pic (after the JB scrub) look more opened than in the first which makes me believe it is not from corrosion.
IMO this barrel should have been rejected at the factory and never installed on a rifle.

ronlaughlin

This morning the rusted, pitted, Omega, was given a try at 200 yard. The elevation dial was turned up 9 moa (36 clicks). First shot of three was from a clean cold barrel. The two succeeding shots were loaded, and shot without wasting time. Temperature was about 38 degrees; elevation is about 4600'. The load was 300 grain XTP, 60 (weighed) grain Blackhorn, black crush rib sabot, W209 primer.


















The breech plug used was this one, which has a couple of modifications.











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MountainDevil54

I wouldnt worry about it. Just means a little extra attention during cleaning will be needed. Seems to be shooting just fine accuracy wise.

bronko22000

I have to agree that the accuracy is great. That is some mighty good shooting at 200 yards Ron.
Why don't you try some fire lapping and see it that takes out whatever that is in the bore. It will either smooth it out some or if its a metal flaw it just might make it open up more.
At least you will know. I hate to see you get injured. I know you have a few other MLs that are just as accurate.

ronlaughlin

After shooting the rust bucket at 200 yard; moved him to 100 yard, and shot him 5 times unsupported. No sling, no stick. He works better than i do.













Came to the house, and cleaned the rifle the same i clean all rifles. Took the barrel photo at the same location in the middle of the barrel.


















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ronlaughlin

Somehow i had a notion to dig out the old old Accura. This rifle was used to develop the modification to the old wrench turned breech plug, so it would reliably ignite Blackhorn. It was used to test the modified plug in every conceivable situation. It was left uncleaned for weeks. When the forecast was for subzero weather, the rifle was loaded, and left out all night. The rifle probably has shot heavy loads of Blackhorn near 2000 times.

We operated under the assumption that Blackhorn was noncorrosive. The photo indicates we were falsely informed. Blackhorn is the only powder ever shot in this rifle.























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